This. No that. This. No.
They debate decades, millennia,
then give in to some subtle pull,

a strand of maternal code, thinner than hair,
stronger and lasting long as humanity.

Something of mother tugging all along,
and now they know they felt it always.

Danger passed, time past, they emerge
at last, stunned by the sun, wondering
why they stayed afraid of such things

as enemy or other, wondering
what was it made them stay down
so long.

Biography

HEID E. ERDRICH is the author of three poetry collections including National Monuments (Michigan State University Press, 2008) and the soon to be re-issued Fishing for Myth (New Rivers Press). She also authored The Mother’s Tongue (Salt Publishing, 2005), and co-edited Sister Nations: Native American Women on Community (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002). A recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board fellowships, awards from The Loft Literary Center, and the Archibald Bush Foundation, Erdrich has been nominated four times for the Minnesota Book Award, which she won in 2009. Read more at heiderdrich.com.